Mountain Pine embraces new schedule, technology
MOUNTAIN PINE — Mountain Pine is a small school district with a personalized approach that offers great academics, a comprehensive athletic program, band and other extracurricular activities. There are many great reasons to choose the Mountain Pine School District.
Call 501-767-1540 for information about how to enroll students or visit the district website at http://www.mpsdrd.com.
School starts for Mountain Pine Aug. 14. The school day will begin at 7:45 a.m. and students will be dismissed at 3:15 p.m. Administration and staff say they are looking forward to another great year with new opportunities to increase student achievement, provide comprehensive athletic programs and increase involvement in the Mountain Pine community.
Mountain Pine offers much in the area of technology, including Google Chromebooks for every student, iPads for grades K-2 and multiple online course offerings, as well as the opportunity for concurrent credit courses and credit recovery classes. The school district has partnered with National Park College to offer the students concurrent credit classes, vocational technology programs, Talent Search and ACT Prep.
Important upcoming events include the annual Stuff the Bus campaign from 9 a.m. to
5 p.m. Aug. 5 at the Walmart store on Albert Pike in partnership with the United Way. Mountain Pine administration, cheerleaders and football players will be on hand to accept donations of needed school supplies for the 2016-17 school year. Donations help families with the cost of school supplies.
The 17th annual Dr. Morriss Memorial Carnival will be Aug. 10 from 5-6:30 p.m. The carnival features bounce houses, games, hot dogs and lemonade at no charge to the community. Superintendent B.J. Applegate will address the community in the annual public meeting starting at
6:30 p.m. in the auditorium after the balloon release to honor the memory of Morriss. The schools will host an open house and meet the teacher activities immediately after the meeting.
Basic school supplies will be provided for all elementary students. Students only need to bring a backpack. Basic supplies will be furnished by the high school. Teachers may require other items for their particular subject areas. Those small lists will be available at the open house.
Mountain Pine is embarking on a new schedule for students this year. The schedule is designed for students have increased access to teachers for extra assistance, as well as additional time in the school day to pursue what interests them.
Flexible modular scheduling is divided into two types of classes. Phase 4 classes meet four times per week and Phase 3 classes meet three times per week. All core area classes are Phase 4 and most electives are Phase 3. The classes meet for the same number of minutes each week regardless if they meet three or four times per week.
Students will log into the Red Devil Flex software to pull up their daily schedules. In that software, they will also be notified if a teacher is out. If a student is assigned Mandatory Learning Time by one of their teachers, it will appear in their schedule. If they are assigned to Structured Learning Time, this will also appear in their schedule.
ILT stands for Independent Learning Time. When students are not scheduled into a class, they have ILT. Junior high students will report to an ILT location that is supervised by a teacher. They may receive passes to go to the library, band room, art room and Environmental and Spatial Technologies.
ILT areas for senior high students include the front lobby, middle hallway, senior high hallway, library and distance learning lab. The hallways, library and distance learning will be designated quiet zones.
When a student’s grade falls below 70 percent in any class, they will be assigned to MLT by the classroom teacher for 10 days. If after 10 days the grade improves, they will earn back their ILT. If they do not improve their grade, they will be moved to SLT and remain until their grades improve to 70 percent or better.
Teachers may schedule meetings with students during their ILT time to meet with them. They may also schedule students to meet with each other during their ILT time to complete projects.
Google classroom is a tool teachers use to post assignments, share resources like videos and websites, create quizzes and tests and allow students to submit assignments. If a teacher is sick or has to attend a training, students can log into their Google classroom and continue learning. Google classroom does not replace the teacher.
The one-to-one initiative provides every student with a Chromebook laptop computer. Students in grades 7-12 will be allowed to take their Chromebooks home this school year. Google classroom works even without wireless internet. Students will be able to complete assignments at home and their work will upload automatically when they return to campus.
All students will be required to pay a $25 insurance policy. Students are responsible for the Chromebooks once they are checked out to them. The computers belong to the district and are subject to the district’s Acceptable Use Policy. Students will be financially responsible if a Chromebook is damaged.